Another good read about Marvin

[ArmyBengal]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nf...personnel_x.htm

This story from USA today article... Just some more food for thought...

Lewis going out on limb with some recent personnel decisions

By Jim Corbett, USA TODAY

Fast and furious. It not only describes the aggressive identity Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is cultivating on defense. It is also about the blitz of legal woes that have continued to rock the Bengals this offseason.

It seems ever since Carson Palmer shredded his knee early in Cincinnati's wild-card playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Bengals have been unable to escape a riptide of bad news.

Lewis believes in the power of the second chance in addition to his and his coaching staff's ability to reach and rehabilitate talented but troubled young players. It's a fitting philosophy for a one-time laughingstock franchise that needed to take more chances than most on red-flag talents to turn around a losing culture.

The problem with granting second chances is the more you play with fire the greater the chance of getting burned. Lewis has been repeatedly burned this embarrassing offseason by several players he's gone out on a limb for: second-year receiver Chris Henry, rookie linebacker A.J. Nicholson, rookie defensive end Frostee Rucker and last year's rookie sensation, middle linebacker Odell Thurman. Henry has been arrested four times in the last seven months. Nicholson and Rucker face court hearings related, respectively, to theft and domestic battery charges.

Thurman has been suspended for the first four games of this season after a second violation of the league's substance abuse policy, according to The (Cincinnati) Enquirer, which cites a person close to the situation.

Lewis has taken another flier on former Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks in the NFL's supplemental draft.

Once considered a first-round talent, coach Al Groh dismissed the 6-3, 259-pound linebacker in March for repeated violations of team rules. Brooks' agent, Greg Williams, acknowledged to The Miami Herald that Brooks had "issues" with drug use in college.

Solomon Wilcots, the former Bengals defensive back and current NFL analyst, knows the history better than most.

"The Bengals organization for too long passed on players they had no business passing on," Wilcots says. "Sometimes you have to take chances. When Marvin got there, he told me that maybe we have to take more chances than other teams right now.

"(Linebackers coach) Ricky Hunley recruited and got to know Ahmad Brooks out of high school. He's the kind of kid who listens well and really does have the right intentions. Now it's about making the right decisions.

"I don't think Vince Lombardi in today's NFL would be a different coach. He would work with a Corey Dillon and a Chris Henry. Now if you're a repeat offender, he might boot you off the team. But look how Lombardi treated Paul Hornung. He treated Hornung much better than Bart Starr. Lombardi wanted to be a Jesuit priest. But instead he used his coaching talent to minister, and he cared about his players as people. I'm not saying Marvin is Vince Lombardi. But he cares about developing his players as people."

Wilcots noted many of today's players come into the league lacking a father figure.

Three-time Pro Bowl receiver Chad Johnson, who was raised by his grandmother and his late grandfather in the Liberty City area of Miami, is one such talent Lewis has helped reach his potential as a player and person. Johnson led the Bengals with a career-high 97 catches for 1,432 yards and was rewarded with a $35.5 million extension through 2011.

"Chad Johnson is a hyper guy," Wilcots says. "He doesn't sleep but five hours a night. He'll call Marvin after midnight and wake him up. Marvin will say, 'Chad, if you're out running the streets, you call me anytime you want.' "

Johnson has called from a nightclub and awakened Lewis at 2 a.m. to talk strategy. Johnson considers Lewis a father figure and is among the hardest working Bengals.

"I lost friends to drugs and jail," Johnson told USA TODAY last season. "Everyone has a route when you're young. Once you veer off that path, it's tough to come back. I veered off a couple of times. But when it counted, I was able to get myself right. ... I play this game because I can't let down my grandmother (Betsy Flowers) and my mom. I can't let down Coach Lewis."

Wilcots says the Bengals aren't alone on an NFL island in taking calculated risks on players with checkered pasts.

"Every single coach in this league has looked up and down the rap sheet on a player and said, 'I still want him,' " Wilcots says."Every single coach has done it because these are the kind of players who lack maturity who are coming into our league today. You can say, 'We're not going to do it.' But if you hold to that creed, you're going to lose."

Unfortunately, Bengals management risks losing some of the goodwill it has engendered in the community with the repeated legal troubles that have raised questions about Cincinnati's personnel judgment and ability to defend its AFC North title.

"We want our fans to know that we share their concerns regarding the recent off-field conduct of several Bengals players," team President Mike Brown said in a statement issued through the team's public relations department. "We expect our players to be good citizens as most are, and we hold them accountable for their conduct under team and league rules."

Lewis has chided the offending players, saying roster spots are not guaranteed and players need to keep better company and be more accountable to their teammates.

"We are closely monitoring these matters," Brown said. "All are currently pending and they will be addressed in accordance with the NFL collective bargaining agreement, including possible disciplinary action."

Wilcots makes one bottom-line observation about Lewis and his interest in nurturing players and how his approach has been rewarded.

"Their young safety, Madieu Williams, is paying thousands of dollars to get his 13-year-old brother (Mike), whom he adopted and called me about regarding trying to get him into Cincinnati Country Day School, the best education possible," Wilcots says. "The family grew up in war-torn Sierra Leone (in West Africa) before Madieu came over here when he was younger. Marvin took Madieu in the second round (of the 2004 draft) because he went and watched Madieu at the University of Maryland. He got a jewel in the draft. That story isn't seared in people's minds like what's happening now with some Cincinnati players.

"Regardless of what you want to say about this offseason, Marvin Lewis has yet to have a losing season in three years. And to be able to say that about the Cincinnati Bengals, that's saying a whole lot."

The question now is what Lewis will have to say to his players.

Will he send a message by jettisoning a player such as Henry to show he won't put up with those who abuse second and third chances?

WHODEY !!!

[bengal4life]

Good read. It's about time somebody gave CJ the credit he deserves for wokmanship.

[alleycat]

I've been thinking in terms of this whole character issue talk that the Bengals could just as easily turn it around into positives. Marvin can reform these kids. Sure some will be lost, but look how dedicated Chad has become to the game because of his desire to impress his dad, uh coach. Odell also grew up without that Father figure. Makes 'em loyal.

Another very important possibility, I think, is that these are the exact type of characters that can become great leaders when shouldered with responsibility. After all of these problems, I suspect Marvin will now approach CJ and say, see, that locker room blow up? These guys look up to you. You have to be an example now, a leader now, and they will respond to that.

Watch it happen. Chad will become much more of a leader on this team, and embrace the role and responsibility that comes with it. And he's living proof that listening to Marvin equals $$$.

[ArmyBengal]

"Every single coach in this league has looked up and down the rap sheet on a player and said, 'I still want him,' " Wilcots says."Every single coach has done it because these are the kind of players who lack maturity who are coming into our league today. You can say, 'We're not going to do it.' But if you hold to that creed, you're going to lose."

Why must coach Lewis keep putting us through this ?? We could have had another coach that would never had done these things to our "great" team...

**SARCASM OFF**

WHODEY !!!

[Kazkal]

Great read,

[Stripes]

"The Bengals organization for too long passed on players they had no business passing on," Wilcots says. "Sometimes you have to take chances. When Marvin got there, he told me that maybe we have to take more chances than other teams right now.